“They’ll still outnumber us two to one!” Commander Yu pointed out reluctantly, as if it were something which had simply slipped my mind and now reminded I would quickly amend my orders. I gave him a tolerant smile- all teeth because that was all I was capable of- before I responded;
“That means the odds are in our favor.” I said, as if that somehow explained everything and he was simply too dull to understand it. The Commander didn’t seem to wish to delve further into my madness and I didn’t blame him. Command was only held by the strong and I would excise any weaknesses within my ranks as would any other reptile in my position. Rebellion could not be fomented from the grave. The Commander turned away and studiously looked in another direction. Smart reptile I thought and a reptile I might be able to count on in a pinch.
“I’m going aboard.” I said as I headed for the hatch. “Anyone care to join me?” I was in a reptile watering-hole not a moment later but not before Serrath who beat me through the entrance by a length.
“Thirsty?” I asked as Leethea and I joined her at the bar.
“Nothing several strong drinks won’t quench.” Serrath replied as she waved down the bartender.
Chapter 54
“I suppose you’ve been thinking about how we’re going to accomplish what we have to accomplish?” Serrath asked as she set her empty tankard down. A small wisp of white steam curled up out of the tankard and quickly dissipated. Toxic stuff.
“Pretty much all I’ve been thinking about.” I said as I put my empty tankard down.
“Why do I feel so reassured?” Leethea asked.
“Maybe it’s the crowd of bodyguards.” Serrath responded to Leethea and then turned to me; “I thought it was every reptile for himself? How are we going to get to kill anybeing with all those guards in the way?”
“I’m sure we’ll get our opportunity.” I said as my second drink arrived and faintly I thought I heard the sound of far-off blaster-fire. I wasn’t the only one. Suddenly every Fsyth in the bar was attentive. I downed my drink and then turned to the Fsyth in the bar surrounding me. The watering-hole was full of Fsyth and for as far out into the corridor as I could see from my vantage. This would never do. One concerted round of blaster fire would take hundreds of us but most importantly I felt enclosed by my own soldiery. Flesh was not a good barricade against blaster fire. I was going to be out in the open where I was mobile and I didn’t mean with a crowd of Fsyth betraying my every movement. “Fsyth disperse.” I said as I headed for the exit. “It’s every Fsyth for himself. No reptile is to follow me!” It goes without saying that Serrath and Leethea were hot on my heels, but they weren’t really reptiles so really didn’t count.
There was a lift tube not a dozen steps from the entrance to the watering-hole and moments after that we were ejected into a corridor hundreds of stories below where we had just been. The only chance the Fsyth would have to survive until the rest of our forces could arrive was to make every Fsyth life cost as much as was possible. How could I be so sure the Emperor of the Vaes would arrive with every fighter at his disposal, every ship packed to the gunwales- because that would be the response I would give if one of my own planets was attacked. The Queen had broken their own rule and so there was no doubt in this reptile’s mind that the Vaes Emperor would come with everything he had. And now he was here though here was a big place. I looked at the blaster on my hip and both Serrath and Leethea caught what I was thinking. This blaster and the one on my other hip as well as those the females were carrying all carried secondary functionality. I think the look in my eye was clear indication of what I intended. We would see once and for all just how powerful the Kievor’s AI was with the extra data surplus of two entire reptilian races doing battle in the corridors of the Station and the general mayhem that would cause.
“You only live once.” Serrath said as we found ourselves at the bar of yet another watering-hole. I had never known Tanya, Meerla or Serrath to need liquid courage before an adventure but it was upon her heels that Leethea and I found ourselves as Serrath led us into the reptilian establishment and up to the bar. Not that I wouldn’t have a drink or three as well since we were already here. The rule I held for myself when it came to piloting I steadfastly held to the opposite when it came to this close-combat street-fighting stuff. I couldn’t explain the how’s or why’s of my success but maybe it was the fact that it was only my life I would be losing if intoxicated reflexes were slow to the draw and secretly I had a death wish that try as I might I couldn’t seem to fulfill. Who could really say? Not this insignificant being.
“I’ll have a double of whatever he’s having.” Leethea said nodding her head in my direction when the reptile bartender finally made his insolent way over to serve us. I supposed he could be insolent with the miniature auto-cannon mounted in the far corner of the bar and hooked to a computer that would shoot first and not know any questions to ask. I made a mental note not to make any threatening gestures in the bartender’s direction no matter how insolent he might become. Enmity was my natural environment and I wallowed in it like a pig in his slops.
“I think we had better drink these quickly.” I said once we had received our drinks and the slightly more subservient bartender- with fat tip nestled safely in his account- had gone to make our second round. Our cups would be empty by the time he returned. We saluted one another, clinking our glasses together, then poured our drinks down our necks and slammed the empty unbreakable carbon glasses on the bar simultaneously to let the bartender know to hurry up. I felt the immediate narcotic effect of the drink and my immediate future seemed to brighten. If I was really to think about it I supposed I had fewer qualms about blowing away whole corridors filled with beings while I was slightly- or more- intoxicated but I wondered what Serrath’s reason was.
“Cheers to our death!” I said as I slammed my cup down.
“Cheers.” They replied. The bartender was returned and we sent him for our thirds. I poured mine down my neck only a moment after Serrath and only a moment before Leethea. This one would almost do the trick I decided as I felt it immediately enter my bloodstream. Serrath looked about ready to storm hell with a bucket of water and Leethea… she had the craziest look in her eyes that I have ever seen there, wrong-slitted eyes or not.
“You going to be all right?” I asked Leethea. I wasn’t quite sure.
“I’ve never been better.” Leethea replied. Our drinks arrived and so had the time of reckoning. I actually took a sip of this one first, might as well have a little taste, before pouring the rest down my neck. It was time to pay the piper.
Chapter 55
When I meant pay the piper I intended the Kievor but the Vaes had other ideas. When I walked out the watering-hole’s hatch and into the hall the first of them popped out of the lift-tube just down the corridor. I blew the reptile- and the lift-tube behind it- into their disparate atoms with double blasts as both my blasters somehow found their way into my hands before the thought could arrive. The blasters had arrived in my hands faster than the thought but with conscious decision I depressed the actuators just as the startled Vaes sensed me and turned his head to lock eyes with me. He was swinging his weapon around when those twin fiery bolts from hell sent him back to that very place with a concussion that shook the deck beneath my claws. He had looked to his right first as he was being ejected when he should have looked to his left but by then it was far too late. There was no explaining the vagaries of the Universe so I just accepted them- if he had been looking to his left when he was ejected it would now be over for all of us. His blast would have taken me, the hatch I was walking through and both Serrath and Leethea behind me as well. Why we weren’t supposed to be bunched up.
Suddenly both Serrath and Leethea were at my side but they were late for the party. This little skirmish was over, at least for the moment. If there were more of them in the tube following the first one- and there was no reason to believe there wouldn’t be- they wouldn’t be coming out this exit. Not for a few mi
nutes at least I noted as I watched the whole lift-tube assembly slowly begin to put itself back together. Bren had been right; the trans-metal didn’t move so quickly when it was forming itself into highly technical apparatus, but it still wouldn’t take long. I fired both my blasters into the already mangled lift-tube one more time just for good measure before putting my blasters back in their holsters. Having to put them away every time was an absolute drawback I had not foreseen, I decided immediately. My hands were where those blasters were supposed to be but I couldn’t continue to hold them in my hands. Hold the blaster for two minutes and it would turn on the nullification field. We couldn’t have that happen early. “Let’s move.” I said.
“Is this all according to the plan?” Serrath asked as she easily paced me. She was a reptilian goddess with green skin and smoothly flowing muscles. Suddenly I found her more desirable than I had ever imagined. I forcibly removed my lecherous look from her bare skin. She was wearing twin blaster belts and nothing else but suddenly I seemed to notice her for the first time. In the heat of battle I suddenly found my hormones in overdrive though clearly this wasn’t the time for that. Serrath sensed my look but I was sure I was looking ahead again when she glanced at me and was sure she didn’t catch me and what I was thinking.
“This isn’t the time for that.” Leethea said on my other side as clearly my hormones gave me away. I ignored her and pretended I didn’t know what she was talking about. We continued to run though where we were running I couldn’t rightly say- as far from where we had been as possible. The Vaes had obviously purchased our location from the Kievor and the moment we stopped we’d be flooded with them. It was all part of the plan however even though the plan itself wasn’t quite fully devised yet- which was of course all part of the plan. Improvisation was the only way out of these situations and the only way we were going to get out of this one.
Beings of every stripe quickly made way for us even though our weapons were holstered. Everybeing knows how quickly a weapon can come out of the holster of a blood-crazed reptile and we were every bit that. I needed something else however. I needed a weapon in my hands and I needed a weapon in my hands now. I saw what I needed as I spotted another lift-tube but Serrath had already seen it. The four-legged reptile that popped out of the lift-tube just in time to avoid Serrath’s blasts- which destroyed the lift-tube it had just exited- didn’t know what hit it though it wasn’t the blaster fire itself which killed it but the concussion of the explosion. The little four-footed reptile had been ejected far enough out into the corridor away from the tube entrance that it avoided the explosions themselves but the concussion shattered it into shreds which rained across the corridor and the few beings which foolishly remained within it. The blood and gore on the wall was absorbed by the trans-metal and vanished almost immediately but the lift-tube would take a little longer to repair. As far as I was concerned the innocent reptile’s death was just another potential opportunity for the Kievor to absorb another ownerless ship and for its mass to be added to the ever-increasing volume of the Station itself. I wondered madly if the Station would split like a cell when it had acquired enough mass to reproduce. The Kievor should pay us for having our war here I continued to think insanely as my reptilian version of adrenaline continued to pump into my system. I was a crazy lizard and I was sure I looked the part. Suddenly the corridor around us was empty as everybeing found somewhere else to be.
“Yep.” I answered Serrath’s earlier question as I headed for what I had originally spotted. It was a weaponry shop and I got through the hatch before the owner could lock me out. As it turned out he was quite happy to have my business and my credits- there was no time for haggling- and within moments we were back in the corridor- the weaponry shop’s lock clicking noticeably the moment the hatch closed.
Chapter 56
The blast-rifle in my hands had not been cheap but would level an entire corridor in less time than it took to think about it. “I imagine hordes of them on their way.” I said as we surveyed our situation. “From every direction would be my guess.”
“You’re a good guesser.” Serrath said though I didn’t turn to look at her. She was facing one way down the corridor, I the other and Leethea looking both ways. The way I saw it was we were going to be pinned between two groups of Vaes and when that took place our end would be quick and anti-climactic. If we let ourselves be pinned between them it was curtains closed for us and without a lot of fanfare before. Clearly I could not let that happen.
“Splitting up wasn’t such a good idea.” Leethea said as she looked back and forth down the corridor. “They’re all just coming after us.”
“It’s all part of Marcrune’s plan.” Serrath said. “I’m sure he has it all worked out.”
“I’m sure he does.” Leethea said. “So what do we do now?”
“That is the question.” I said, not planning for a moment to deny I had no plan. We were far beyond that. Leethea was right of course, splitting up hadn’t been such a good idea. The whole horde was coming straight for us and new weapons or not we were in a spot I couldn’t see our way out of.
“There is no way out.” Serrath said cheerfully as she read my mind through my pheromones. Why was it that the only time she was cheerful was when we were about to die. She added; “There never is.”
“This time may be different.” I said.
“Oh there might be a way out of this?” Leethea asked.
“No.” I said. “This time we really may not get out.”
“I bet there’s twenty thousand of them on their way at least.” Serrath said.
“The only reason they’re not here yet is they know exactly where we are and they’re completely encircling us before they pounce.” I agreed though that didn’t really help with figuring how we were going to get through this impenetrable wall of Vaes.
“I bet the lifts won’t work for us.” Serrath said helpfully, not that I wanted to ride a lift and be ejected straight into a barrage of blaster-fire. The lift-tubes and the place you might arrive should you be foolish enough to get in one were for sale and I didn’t want to lose the bidding war while I was already on the ride.
“Anything is for sale on a Kievor Trade Station.” I agreed. Was it worth it to try and outbid the Vaes over locking an elevator when we had perfectly good blast-rifles in our hands? “I think it will be cheaper to replace the floor.” I added as Serrath’s blast-rifle kicked in her hands pistol style and a bolt of brilliant energy flashed down the corridor to explode out of sight though I didn’t know what she was shooting at. Just her intuition probably and which meant time was up. Her intuition was never wrong. I lifted my blast rifle and began firing into the floor ten meters down the corridor. Four shots and there was a gaping hole. Two seconds after that the three of us were in a jewelry shop the next level down and amidst some very stunned beings. Two more seconds after that and we were out the hatch and into the corridor of the next lower level and hopefully momentarily eluded our enemies.
The jewelry shops lock clicked as the hatch closed behind us but it was the explosion in the corridor above the jewelry shop that caught our attention. The deck shook under my claws as dozens or hundreds of blaster bolts exploded simultaneously in the corridor above the jewelry shop. We had a clear view of the interior of the jewelry shop through its clear carbon storefront and a clear view as the entire shop and every being within it were instantly engulfed in roiling fire as with nowhere else to go all that energy poured down into the hole we had created and which had not fully resealed itself yet.
“Damn they had some nice stuff.” Serrath said as she turned and began to run.
“That’ll cost the Vaes a pretty credit-note.” I said as I paced her. Serrath was on my right and Leethea to my left and the corridor ahead of us clearing as quickly as appendages could move bodies. Suddenly the corridor ahead of us was completely empty.
We ran around a slight bend in the corridor and suddenly Leethea’s blast rifle went off, the bolt flashing d
own the corridor ahead of us to strike the floor in front of a lift-tube that had just come into view and blowing a dozen Vaes away in the process.
“I think this is going to get ugly.” I said as we skidded to a halt. I raised my blast-rifle and fired four times into the deck ahead of us and once more we were racing for a lower deck.
Chapter 57
Reptilian legs were made for jumping so hopping down through the opening I had created into the lower level- which turned out to be a vacant residence this time- was as easy as getting off my barstool when I was a human. Not always perfectly easy- depending on the circumstance- but manageable. The blast-rifle was no toy and probably too heavy for my human muscles to handle but I managed it with ease in my present guise. The females landed beside me and we were once again moving.
The front hatch of the vacant apartment vanished in an explosion as we raced through the overlarge accommodation towards that same front hatch. Then we heard explosions behind us in the corridor above us. Only a few and not enough to wash down to us but the picture had become quite clear. We were completely surrounded not only on this level but the levels above us and below us. They were racing into the levels below to complete their encirclement and so clearly it was time to begin to wonder how long this could go on- not long was my opinion. I spun to find a place to blast a hole through this floor but Serrath’s blast-rifle was already going off. A moment later we were dropping through the hole and right into a crowded corridor. It was crowded one moment but vacant the next- except for three blood-crazed lizards holding very large blast-rifles and sure mania shining from our eyes.
Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance Page 17
